LONDON — Paul Thomas Anderson’s politically charged action thriller “One Battle After Another” leads the race for the British Academy Film Awards, securing 14 nominations Tuesday including acting nods for five of its cast.
Ryan Coogler’s blues-steeped vampire epic “Sinners” is close behind with 13 nominations for Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars, while Chloé Zhao’s Shakespearean family tragedy “Hamnet” and Josh Safdie’s ping-pong odyssey “Marty Supreme” have 11 apiece.
Guillermo del Toro’s reimagining of “Frankenstein” and Norwegian family drama “ Sentimental Value” each got eight nominations, rounding out a six-pack of leading contenders for both the British and Hollywood Academy Awards.
The best film nominees are “One Battle After Another,” “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” “Sinners” and “Sentimental Value.”
BAFTA Chief Executive Jane Millichip said the nominations recognized “films like ‘One Battle After Another,’ ‘Sinners,’ tackling really big societal issues — the moral ambiguity of activism, Black identity,” alongside films exploring “the most intimate side of family relationships.”
“They’re all doing it in quite different ways: Strong flavors, really bold storytelling,” she said.
Best leading actor contenders are Robert Aramayo for playing a man with Tourette’s syndrome in biographical drama “I Swear,” Timothée Chalamet for “Marty Supreme,” Leonardo DiCaprio for “One Battle After Another,” Ethan Hawke for Broadway biopic “Blue Moon,” Michael B. Jordan for “Sinners” and Jesse Plemons for “Bugonia.”
The leading actress category includes awards-season favorite Jessie Buckley for her performance as Agnes Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, in “Hamnet.” She’s up against Rose Byrne for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” Kate Hudson for “Song Sung Blue,” Chase Infiniti for “One Battle After Another,” Renate Reinsve for “Sentimental Value” and Emma Stone for dystopian tragicomedy “Bugonia.”
“One Battle” actors Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn are all nominated for supporting performances.
The Associated Press was recognized in the best documentary category with a nomination for Mstyslav Chernov’s harrowing Ukraine war portrait “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” co-produced by the AP and PBS Frontline.
The winners will be announced at a Feb. 22 ceremony in London hosted by actor Alan Cumming. The U.K. prizes — officially called the EE BAFTA Film Awards — often provide clues about who will triumph at Hollywood’s Academy Awards, held this year on March 15.
This year, unusually, Oscar nominations were announced first, with “Sinners” securing a record 16 nominations, followed by 13 for “One Battle After Another.”
The British academy has recognized several performers overlooked by the Oscars, including supporting actor nominees Paul Mescal for “Hamnet” and Odessa A’zion for “Marty Supreme.”
The BAFTAs also have a distinctly British accent, with a separate category of best British film. Its 10 nominees include “The Ballad of Wallis Island,” “Pillion,” “I Swear” and “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.”
Most BAFTA winners are chosen by 8,500 members of the U.K. academy of industry professionals, with one – the Rising Star Award – selected by public vote from a shortlist of nominees. This year’s rising star contenders are Infiniti, Aramayo, “Sinners” star Miles Caton and British actors Archie Madekwe and Posy Sterling.
Like other major movie awards, Britain’s film academy has introduced changes in recent years to increase diversity. In 2020, no women were nominated as best director for the seventh year running, and all 20 nominees in the lead and supporting performer categories were white. The voting process was changed to add a longlist round before the final nominees are selected.
Zhao is the only female nominee in the best director category, alongside Anderson, Safdie, Cooger, Yorgos Lanthimos for “Bugonia” and Joachim Trier for “Sentimental Value.” Across all categories including documentaries and shorts, 25% of the directing nominees are women.
Kristen Stewart is eyeing a move out of the United States due to President Donald Trump.
The “Twilight” actress revealed in an interview with The Times that she’s cultivating her directorial career around being able to create films in Europe because she “can’t work freely” in America.
Her directorial debut, “The Chronology of Water,” was shot in Lativia as “it would have been impossible to do in the States.”
Stewart added that Trump’s threat of tariffs on movies made outside the country is “terrifying” for the film industry.
Kristen Stewart slammed Donald Trump’s proposed film industry tariff.(Michael Buckner)
“Reality is breaking completely under Trump,” she said. “But we should take a page out of his book and create the reality we want to live in.”
The bi-coastal actress – who spends time in Los Angeles and New York – admitted that she’s “probably not” going to live in the states for much longer.
“I can’t work freely there,” Stewart said. “But I don’t want to give up completely. I’d like to make movies in Europe and then shove them down the throat of the American people.”
In September, four months after initially musing the idea, Trump proposed a 100% tariff on films made outside the United States.
“Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby.’ California, with its weak and incompetent Governor, has been particularly hard hit!” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time. “Therefore, in order to solve this long time, never-ending problem, I will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States.”
Kristen Stewart said “reality is breaking completely under Trump.”(Sebastian Reuter/Getty Images)
“Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!,” he concluded.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office responded with a statement on X: “The Governor tried to explain this to Trump months ago — when this was initially proposed — that his actions will cause irreparable damage to the U.S. film industry. Today’s move is 100% stupid.”
Trump’s proposal has not yet gained further momentum.
Stewart struggled to get the film made since she first announced the project in 2018 at the Cannes Film Festival, but told Porter Magazine in 2024 that she planned to shoot in Latvia.
“It’s a fledgling film culture there. Look, I’m all about the way we make movies here [in the U.S.], but I needed a sort of radical detachment. I am not a director yet. I need to make a student film. I can’t do that here,” she explained at the time.
Kristen Stewart filmed her directorial debut in Lativia.(Matt Winkelmeyer )
Her history with the president goes back more than a decade. While she was dating “Twilight” co-star Robert Pattinson, Stewart was involved in a cheating scandal with her then-married “Snow White and the Huntsman” director, Rupert Sanders.
Trump posted a string of tweets at the time, including, “Robert Pattinson should not take back Kristen Stewart. She cheated on him like a dog & will do it again — just watch. He can do much better!”
Trump followed up days later with another post on the platform, and wrote, “Everyone knows I am right that Robert Pattinson should dump Kristen Stewart. In a couple of years, he will thank me. Be smart, Robert.”
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart dated for four years after meeting on the set of “Twilight.”(Chris Polk/FilmMagic)
Last month, the “Adventureland” actress slammed the entertainment industry as a “capitalist hell” which hated women and “marginalized voices.”
“We’re in a pivotal nexus, because I think we’re ready for a full system break. Do you know what I mean? I mean that across the board and also specific to the world that I live in, which is very exclusively the entertainment industry,” Stewart said in a sit-down with The New York Times’ “The Interview.”
“We need to start sort of stealing our movies. I’m so appreciative of every union. Trust me, we would not survive without them. But some of the terms and some of the rules and some of the structures we’ve set up have created unbelievable barriers for artists to express themselves.”
She argued, “It’s just so difficult to make movies, it just doesn’t need to be. I’m just trying to think of some sort of weird, like Marxist, Communist-like, situation that other people can definitely think, of course this psycho is saying that, but I think it’s possible, especially in these kind of narrow and exclusive environments. I’m not talking about the world at large, but for us, the system has barred people and made it too difficult to be honest.”
Tracy Wright is an entertainment reporter for Fox News Digital. Send story tips to Tracy.Wright@fox.com.
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It makes perfect sense that, as a director, Olivia Wilde would want to follow the extravagant, ambitious disaster of Don’t Worry Darling with a four-character chamber piece confined to one location. The Invite, based on the Spanish director Cesc Gay’s 2020 movie The People Upstairs (which was itself based on an earlier play by Gay), features an unhappy couple inviting their upstairs neighbors for a dinner party that quickly goes to some strange places; it’s the kind of supposedly focused character study that probably felt nourishing after all the off-camera craziness of Wilde’s previous directorial outing.
We can sense the theatrical origins of the story right from the start, with downcast music teacher Joe (Seth Rogen) arriving home one evening only to find that his fussy, anxious wife Angela (Wilde) is in the middle of preparing for a dinner party for their upstairs neighbors. Joe is not only unprepared for this, he doesn’t even like these neighbors, who weird them out and keep them up at all hours having extremely loud sex. Joe and Angela’s incessant bickering early on — every observation prompting an objection or a counter-observation — telegraphs that their neighbors will probably turn out to be a lot better adjusted than they are. Sure enough, when Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penelope Cruz) arrive, they seem both relaxed and all-knowing: They confess that they heard Joe and Angela arguing loudly before they even rang the doorbell. He’s a retired firefighter, she’s a sexologist, and suddenly the upstairs neighbors have the upper hand, psychologically speaking.
The Invite is primarily a comedy, and it does have some solid laughs, though the character interactions can also feel so manufactured that our bullshit detectors start going off fairly early. Angela, we’re told, is hypervigilant and neurotic — their daughter is at a sleepover and Angela tells Joe she called beforehand to ensure that there will be no men or weapons present in the friend’s house — and she’s apparently also on top of current mores and attitudes from days spent listening to podcasts. Funny, sure, but somehow, Angela also manages to organize an entire meal based on meat and cheese without ever checking to make sure her neighbors can eat such things. (It turns out, of course, that Pina can’t.) This is minor stuff, meant to add to an accumulation of interpersonal awkwardness, but such inconsistencies add up and deflate the characters’ believability. If in something like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf the characters’ inadequacies and resentments fuel their increasingly erratic behavior, here these people feel like grab bags of punchlines, their actions there primarily to get laughs.
More worryingly, the film’s stylized, theatrical dialogue only really works onscreen if there’s a musicality to the words and a rhythm to the back and forth. Wilde manages to undermine that through aggressive, insistent music cues that flatten everything out — almost as if she doesn’t trust the script, credited to Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, to do the trick. Still, these are good actors, and each brings their unique style. As a comic performer, Wilde (who also gives a tremendous performance in another Sundance movie this year, Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex) excels at going big — precise in her timing, unafraid to exaggerate for comic effect — while Rogen deploys his usual goofy, improv-style cadences — stumbling over words, anxiously repeating himself, swallowing punchlines.
When Norton and Cruz show up, they bring their own vibes: He’s soft-spoken and even keeled, she’s a bit of a flower child. This is all intentional, surely. You don’t go with a cast like this if you don’t want these actors to do their own individual things. And it does pay off, occasionally: Entering the apartment, Hawk and Pina talk a lot about the décor and the energy in the room, and Joe responds, snarkily, “We talked a lot about capturing energy, as if it’s a thing we could actually do.” But it takes seriously sharp writing and directorial control to make all these people feel like they exist in the same movie, and the truth is that the performances don’t really cohere.
Wilde leans into the comedy as much as possible, often framing shots for maximum visual humor. At its best, The Invite uses the spaces of this apartment well, putting dead air between its alienated characters and bringing them physically closer over the course of the film. But even here, the tonal whipsawing can backfire. As I noted earlier, The Invite goes to some odd places, but with each new turn in these relationships, the picture loses steam, perhaps because they’ve never come across as real people and these emotional twists don’t feel fully earned. Meanwhile, the shticky humor of the first hour makes for a disappointing mismatch with the awkward earnestness of the finale, as the characters all get their sentimental, tedious monologues, now complete with soft music on the soundtrack. (The movie is, frankly, a clinic in how not to use a score.)
Wilde’s directorial debut Booksmart, released in 2019 to great acclaim, worked in large part because she brought so much inventiveness to a familiar and chaotic coming-of-age tale, using technique to overcome the story’s tonal challenges. Don’t Worry Darling, by contrast, felt too stilted and controlled, too programmed and predictable, almost as if the director felt obligated to rein in her stylistic impulses against a supposedly more complicated story. The Invite feels at times like a film that could have benefited from more control. It’s too baggy to really work as a chamber piece. (It’s not a particularly long movie, but it drags considerably after a while.) But it also doesn’t really give Wilde any real opportunities to cut loose and demonstrate her strengths as a director, which once seemed so considerable.
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Attendees at this year’s Sundance Film Festival could not stand in line, step onto a shuttle bus or walk into a lounge without hearing one common question: “Will you go to the festival when it moves to Boulder?”
The media professional from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, considers this the last year of the festival in its true form, “because a Sundance outside Utah just isn’t Sundance.”
A group of women walked down Main Street on Saturday wearing yellow scarves that read “Our last Sundance 2026.” Another festivalgoer with a film reel balanced atop her head held a sign dubbing this “the last Sundance.”
“It’s not just a resistance to change,” said Suzie Taylor, an actor who has been coming to Sundance on and off since 1997. “Robert Redford’s vision was rooted here. And isn’t it poetic that he passed right before the last one?”
For Julie Nunis, the joy of Sundance is grounded in the tradition Redford created in Park City more than four decades ago. The actor from Los Angeles has come to the festival nearly every year since 2001 and said she doesn’t want to experience it any other way.
Redford, who died in September at age 89, established the festival and development programs for filmmakers in the Utah mountains as a haven for independent storytelling far from the pressures of Hollywood. Before his death, Redford, who attended the University of Colorado Boulder, gave his blessing for the festival to relocate.
Boulder emerged victorious from a yearlong search in which numerous U.S. cities vied to host the nation’s premier independent film festival. Sundance organizers decided to search for a new home because they said the festival had outgrown the ski town it helped put on the map and developed an air of exclusivity that took focus away from the films.
Some film professionals and volunteers said they were willing to give Boulder a try but worried Sundance could lose its identity outside its longtime home.
Lauren Garcia, who has come from Seattle to volunteer at Sundance for the past six years, said curiosity may lead her to Boulder for future festivals. She described feeling a sadness lingering over the final Utah festival and wondered if Redford’s death means it’s time for Sundance to close this chapter.
“How is the festival going to express itself in a new place and continue his legacy? It’s a huge question mark,” said Garcia, an anthropologist. “The truth is, it’s never going to be the same now that he’s gone.”
Redford’s daughter, Amy Redford, who serves on the Sundance Institute’s board of trustees, said she’s excited about the transition, even if it comes with a steep learning curve.
Nik Dodani, an actor and filmmaker passionate about telling LGBTQ+ stories, said he’s excited to experience the festival in a new state that embraces diversity, but he worries the departure will create a “vacuum” of those stories in Utah.
Amy Redford assures that won’t be the case.
The piece of her father’s legacy that she said meant the most to him — the institute’s lab programs for emerging screenwriters and directors — will remain in Utah, at the resort he founded, about 34 miles (54 kilometers) south of Park City. Filmmakers will continue to “create the civil discourse that we really need to be having in the state,” she said.
“Boulder, Colorado, will be a new adventure. It will feel like our beginnings when we were trying to figure things out, and that will have an important impact on what we do,” she told The Associated Press. “But the way that we meet artists where they need to be, well, that evolves out of a heartbeat that is here” in Utah.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
One of the latter comes from filmmaker Macon Blair, a Sundance veteran and grand jury prize winner for “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore,” whose new movie might best be described as a road movie gone wrong.
Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr. play two down on their luck guys and general screwups who are hired to transport a troubled teen (Mason Thames) to a treatment facility in “The S—heads,” which had its world premiere in Park City, Utah Friday night. It’s one of the films looking for distribution at the indie film festival.
Blair and Alex Orr started working on the script over 10 years ago. It almost got made in 2017, but financing fell apart when they were in pre-production.
“Over time it got a little darker, a little seedier, a little angrier. It’s still a comedy, it’s still meant to be fun and breezy and a good time,” Blair said. “But there was a current of something that became a little more pronounced.”
When they decided to try again, Franco was the one who helped get it across the finish line, joining as a producer, finding the money and suggesting Jackson and Thames for their roles. Blair loved watching Franco work, in particular.
“Every single thing he does, you’re like, ‘Oh that could go in the movie,’” Blair said. “He’s so prepared, so dialed in. It was impressive to watch.”
The film also features surprising supporting performances by Kiernan Shipka and Peter Dinklage, who Blair became friends with after getting a beer at Sundance not too long ago. His hope is to find a distributor who might be open to a theatrical release, citing a movie like “Friendship ” as an example of a more unconventional movie that audiences turned out for.
“I hope someone gets the vibe of the movie on its own terms,” Blair said. “You don’t name a movie this because you want it to be a Merchant Ivory thing. But there’s other things in it. I think about O’Shea’s performance and how vulnerable he gets in this. I’m hoping people laugh, I’m hoping people have a good time. But I’m also hoping people see that he’s a great actor too.”
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
PARK CITY, Utah — Filmmakers and actors whose careers were shaped by Robert Redford and the Sundance Institute he founded reflected on his legacy as the godfather of independent cinema at a star-studded gala Friday night during the first Sundance Film Festival since his death.
The 2026 festival — its last in Utah, before relocating to Boulder, Colorado — is a love letter to the haven Redford established in the state decades ago for stories that didn’t fit into the mainstream.
Even as the festival heads to its new home, the piece of Redford’s legacy that his daughter said meant the most to him will remain in Utah: the institute’s lab programs for writers and directors.
“When my dad could have created an empire, he created a nest,” said his daughter, Amy Redford. “The Sundance Institute was designed to support and protect and nourish and then set free.”
She said there was no place her father would rather be than sitting with a new filmmaker at the Sundance Mountain Resort he founded, about 34 miles (54 kilometers) south of Park City.
The labs, which started in 1981, bring emerging storytellers to the rustic resort in northern Utah to nurture their talents under expert guidance and away from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood. Three of the five best director nominees at this year’s Academy Awards — Paul Thomas Anderson, Chloé Zhao and Ryan Coogler — came up through the labs.
Zhao, whose film “Hamnet” was nominated this week for eight Oscars, credited the screenwriting lab with jump-starting her career in 2012. Under the mentorship of Redford and program director Michelle Satter, she said she learned to trust her own vision and gained an invaluable community of creatives.
Other former participants, including director Nia DaCosta, shared memories of Redford riding his motorcycle on peaceful wooded paths and stopping to talk to them about their projects. He insisted each of them call him by his nickname, Bob.
“I remember once seeing him walk some of the other fellows from the directors lab, and he just looked so full of love and pride for us, for what he built,” DaCosta said. “And it was just very clear to me in that moment the depth to which he cared about this place and all of us.”
Sundance Film Festival regular Ethan Hawke recounted his first audition in front of Redford for the 1992 period drama “A River Runs Through It.” After forgoing sleep to prepare a lengthy monologue, Hawke said Redford pulled him aside to say he was too young for the part but would undoubtedly have a wonderful career.
Redford was an early champion of Hawke’s work and became one of his greatest mentors. Hawke pledged Friday to “keep the fire that he started burning” and help it spread.
Screenings at this year’s festival were preceded by a short video tribute to Redford, which was repeatedly met with thunderous applause. Many volunteers wore buttons that read “Thank you Bob!”
Later in the festival will be a screening of his first truly independent film, the 1969 sports drama “Downhill Racer.”
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s first taste of Sundance was as a publicist for other artists at the festival. In 2012, she got her own big break at Sundance with “Middle of Nowhere.” She later spent several years as a Sundance trustee and grew close to Redford, though she said she never felt quite right calling him Bob.
“Mr. Redford didn’t just establish a festival. He modeled a way to be, a way that matters, a way that says artists matter, that imagination is worth protecting,” DuVernay said. “The door that he built is still open, and it’s up to us to walk through and to maybe even build our own.”
For the first and likely the only time, she then said, “Thank you, Bob.”
PARK CITY, Utah — The Sundance Film Festival is in full swing, with Channing Tatum, Olivia Wilde and Charli xcx movies premiering back-to-back at the storied Eccles Theatre Friday evening in Park City, Utah. Considered some of the hottest tickets at the festival, the waitlists are already long, and the lines will surely be longer.
First up is “Josephine,” writer-director Beth De Araújo’s raw drama about an 8-year-old girl (Mason Reeves) whose life and sense of safety is upended after she witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park. Tatum and Gemma Chan play the parents who are unsure how to help her navigate these new emotions and fears. The film, which is part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition, is based on De Araújo’s own experience of seeing something scarring at that age.
The next film, Gregg Araki’s “I Want Your Sex,” will bring a distinct change in tone to the Eccles. It’s the story of a college graduate in his early 20s (played by Cooper Hoffman ) who gets his first job as a kind of intern/assistant to a renowned art world provocateur named Erika Tracy (Wilde), who Arkai described as “bold, daring and very controversial,” a cross between Robert Mapplethorpe and Madonna.
“It’s the story of their affairs and the impact it has on this kid’s life and how it kind of turns his whole world upside down,” Araki told The Associated Press. “It’s fun, it’s colorful, it’s sexy. And it’s a ride.”
It’s a film that Araki has been working on for over 10 years, as it evolved from a comic “Fifty Shades of Grey” with a female intern to what it is now.
“After #MeToo and Harvey Weinstein, all the stuff that was going on, it was literally like, I don’t really want to see a woman getting dragged around by the hair,” Araki said. “I don’t want to seed that kind of patriarchal dynamic, even if it’s consensual.”
Flipping the gender roles and making the young intern a man made the movie more interesting for Araki, “as a filmmaker who has always been heavily influenced by feminist film theory and feminism in general,” he said.
At the same time, he was absorbing news stories about Gen Z and how they don’t have sex or relationships anymore and a new dynamic emerged.
“What I knew as an old person, as an old-timer, in terms of socialization, dating, sex, all of this stuff that seemed to be kind of falling away,” Araki said. “And so that kind of became a major theme of the movie.”
Things Wilde’s character says are things he has also said in interviews about sex and sexuality. Her character gets into generational debates about it. And ultimately it’s sex positive.
“It was very important to me to make something sex positive,” Araki said. “’I Want Your Sex’ is like the opposite of ‘Babygirl,’ which I found to be very sex negative.”
The film also features a supporting turn from Charli xcx, who was a fan of Araki and whose “Brat” album cover was partially inspired by the title credits to his film “Smiley Face.” When she heard about this new movie, he said, she asked if she could be in it. He was interested, but told her agent that she needed to do a self-tape “like everyone else” to play the part of Hoffman’s girlfriend.
“The character is not her. That’s what’s so fun,” he said. “She’s American, she’s super uptight and kind of pill.”
She filmed her scenes in one day, on a two-day break in the middle of her Brat tour.
“I don’t want to give it away, but she’s in one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie where her and Cooper’s character are having kind of bad sex,” he said.
Those who stick around at the Eccles after “I Want Your Sex” will get a Charli xcx double feature, with the world premiere of her self-referential mockumentary “The Moment,” about a rising pop star, before it hits theaters on Jan. 30.
Earlier Friday, the world premiere of William David Caballero’s mixed-media film “TheyDream” immersed viewers in the intimate story of a Puerto Rican family learning to process grief through art. Caballero and cowriter Elaine Del Valle have screened short films at Sundance in the past but were honored to bring a full-length feature to the festival.
“Sundance has always been about possibility for me — about artists being given space to take creative risks and tell personal stories,” Del Valle, who is also a producer on the film, told the AP. “Bringing our first feature, especially in Sundance’s final year in Utah, carries a different weight.”
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Associated Press writer Hannah Schoenbaum contributed to this story.
Stuck in the house for a few days? Maybe you’re looking for something new to watch. The best is always finding that one movie or movie series to binge. Something about getting cozy and enjoying a good movie really does something to your brain. The best movies are those that take you on a journey while you’re binging. Especially if there are a few in the series.
Looking for something new to start watching? We got you covered! Take a look at a few movies that are some of the best you can watch today!
Magic Mike & Magic Mikel XXL
Spice things up with Magic Mike. See how a male stripper teaches a younger performer how to turn the party up, pick up women, and make money. EASY! Since it’s not just one movie, even more reason to tune in.
Pitch Perfect
Aca-awesome! Tune in to all three Pitch Perfect movies and give yourself the chance to sing along. Becca is looking for somewhere to fit in at her new university, and joining the acapella group is just what she needs.
Legally Blonde
Law school? Who said that it was really that hard? Elle Woods steals the show when she follows her ex to Harvard Law School and exceeds his and her own expectations.
The Twilight Saga
Werewolves and vampires? Insane! But this saga is the true testament to love, friendship, and family. If you have never seen any of the saga, now is the perfect time to tune in. There are quite a few, so it may take you a moment, but it’s so worth it!
Sinners
Did you miss Sinners in the theater last year? No worries, the newly Oscar-nominated movie is available for you to stream. See how Ryan Coogler takes his first horror feature to the next level. There’s a reason it’s leading the 2026 Oscar nominations.
One of Them Days
Looking for a good laugh? Check out Keke Palmer and SZA navigate their crazy lives. Looking for some money? Local run ins to your crazy neighbors? Everything that could go wrong does, until it finally all goes right.
A young couple joins an exclusive group that travels to a fine dining restaurant on a private island. It’s run by a famous chef who prepares a lavish menu, but things take a turn when a surprising twist occurs.
21 Jump Street
Cops and best friend sup Schmidt and Jenko are excited to join the unit. But, what’s their first mission? To go undercover as high school students to stpo a dangerous drug ring on campus. But, being back in high school isn’t so easy.
Creed
If you have never seen them, then now’s your chance to watch all three Creed movies. If you are a fan of classic boxing movies, then this Rocky spinoff is perfect for you. Written and directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan, you know the intense sports film will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions.
George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Paul Mescal, Amanda Seyfried, Denzel Washington, Daniel Day-Lewis and Brad Pitt are some of Hollywood’s biggest names who failed to receive an Oscar nomination in acting categories when the nominees for the 98th Academy Awards were announced in Hollywood on Thursday.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, both nominees last year for their performances in “Wicked,” were not similarly nominated for the sequel. In fact, “Wicked: For Good,” was shut out of all categories.
On the opposite end, “Sinners” broke the record for Oscar nominations, with 16, including one in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ newest category, best casting. “One Battle After Another” followed with 13 nominations, while “Frankenstein,” “Marty Supreme” and “Sentimental Value” each earned nine.
Best actor
George Clooney as a movie star receiving a career tribute in Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly.”
Peter Mountain/Netflix
Clooney, who played a Hollywood star much like himself in “Jay Kelly,” was left off the best actor list, as were Jesse Plemons (“Bugonia”), Oscar Isaac (“Frankenstein”), Jeremy Allen White (“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”), Daniel Day-Lewis (“Anemone”), Joaquin Phoenix (“Eddington”), and Denzel Washington (“Highest 2 Lowest”). Hugh Jackman was not nominated for “Song Sung Blue,” though his partner in the film, Kate Hudson, was. Joel Edgerton, the central pillar of the film “Train Dreams,” was not nominated, though the picture earned four nominations, including best picture. Brad Pitt was also left in the pit stop for his performance in “F1,” but as a producer he shared in the film’s best picture nomination.
Michael B. Jordan received his first nomination for playing two characters in “Sinners,” while Leonardo DiCaprio earned his eighth for “One Battle After Another.” “Marty Supreme” star Timothée Chalamet, at age 30, became the youngest male to earn three best actor nominations (after “Call Me By Your Name” and “A Complete Unknown”), taking that title from Marlon Brando.
Nominees: Timothée Chalamet, “Marty Supreme”; Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another”; Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon”; Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners;” and Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent.”
Best actress
Amanda Seyfried in “The Testament of Ann Lee.”
Searchlight Pictures
The best actress category was over-stuffed with fine performances this year. Golden Globe nominees Amanda Seyfried (“The Testament of Ann Lee”), Julia Roberts (“After the Hunt”), Chase Infiniti (“One Battle After Another”), Jennifer Lawrence (“Die, My Love”), Tessa Thompson (“Hedda”) and Eva Victor (“Sorry, Baby”) were left out of the Oscar nominations in this category, as were Julia Garner (“Weapons”), Dakota Johnson (“Materialists”), Jodie Foster (“A Private Life”), and Laura Dern (“Is This Thing On?”).
Rose Byrne (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”) and Renate Reinsve (“Sentimental Value”) each received their first Oscar nominations, while Emma Stone earned her fifth acting nod, after having won two Oscars.
Nominees: Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”; Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”; Kate Hudson, “Song Sung Blue”; Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value”; and Emma Stone, “Bugonia.”
Best supporting actor
Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare in “Hamnet.”
Universal/Focus Features
The Screen Actors Guild’s Actor nominees Paul Mescal (“Hamnet”) and Miles Caton (“Sinners”) were left out of the Oscars, as were Adam Sandler (“Jay Kelly”), Aidan Delbus (“Bugonia”), Kevin O’Leary (“Marty Supreme”), Josh Brolin (“Wake Up Dead Man” and “Weapons”), Idris Elba and Tracy Letts (“A House of Dynamite”), William H. Macy (“Train Dreams”), Jack O’Connell (“Sinners”), Andrew Scott (“Blue Moon”), Josh O’Connor (“Wake Up Dead Man”), Mark Hamill (“The Life of Chuck”), and Andrew Garfield (“After the Hunt”).
Delroy Lindo (“Sinners”), Jacob Elordi (“Frankenstein”) and Stellan Skarsgård (“Sentimental Value”) each received their first Oscar nomination, while Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn, of “One Battle After Another,” previously have seven nominations and three Oscars between them.
Nominees: Benicio Del Toro, “One Battle After Another”; Jacob Elordi, “Frankenstein”; Delroy Lindo, “Sinners”; Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”; and Stellan Skarsgård, “Sentimental Value.”
Best supporting actress
Rebecca Ferguson in the White House Situation Room tracking an incoming missile in “A House of Dynamite.”
Eros Hoagland/Netflix
Rebecca Ferguson (“A House of Dynamite”) was one of the most notable absences from the list of best supporting actress nominees, but there was a plethora of performances that didn’t make it, including Golden Globe nominee Emily Blunt (“The Smashing Machine”), Odessa A’zion and Gwyneth Paltroe for “Marty Supreme,” Glenn Close (“Wake Up Dead Man”), Regina Hall (“One Battle After Another”), Hailee Steinfeld (“Sinners”), Mia Goth (“Frankenstein”), Jennifer Lopez (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”), Margaret Qualley (“Blue Moon”), Zoey Deutch (“Nouvelle Vague”), Felicity Jones (“Train Dreams”), Laura Dern (“Jay Kelly”), Mariam Afshari (“It Was Just an Accident”), and Oona Chaplin (“Avatar: Fire and Water”).
Apart from Amy Madigan (“Weapons”), all the nominees in this category are first-timers.
Nominees: Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value”; Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value”; Amy Madigan, “Weapons”; Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners”; and Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another.”
Best picture
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident.”
Neon
It was a shock that the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize-winner, the powerful “It Was Just an Accident,” was not among the Oscar finalists; four of the previous Palme d’Or recipients (including Oscar-winners “Parasite” and “Anora”) managed to get nominated. It was just as shocking to find the Formula One racing film “F1” in the running, as it only earned nominations in the editing, sound and visual effects categories. But other crowdpleasers were also missing, including “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” “Weapons,” and “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.”
Nominees: “Bugonia,” “F1,” “Hamnet,” “Frankenstein,” “One Battle After Another,” “Marty Supreme,” “The Secret Agent,” “Sentimental Value,” “Sinners,” and “Train Dreams.”
Best director
Guillermo del Toro and Oscar Issac on the set of “Frankenstein.”
Ken Woroner/Netflix
Despite “Frankenstein” earning eight nominations, including best picture, Directors Guild nominee Guillermo del Toro was not cited for directing (though he did earn a nomination for his adapted screenplay). Also left out were Jafar Panahi (“It Was Just an Accident”); Kleber Mendonça Filho (“The Secret Agent”); Zach Cregger (“Weapons”); Yorgos Lanthimos (“Bugonia”); Park Chan-wook (“No Other Choice”); Clint Bentley (“Train Dreams”); Richard Linklater (“Nouvelle Vague,” “Blue Moon”); Kathryn Bigelow (“A House of Dynamite”); Mona Fastvold (“The Testament of Ann Lee”); Mary Bronstein (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”); Rian Johnson (“Wake Up Dead Man”); Kelly Reichardt (“The Mastermind”); and DGA nominee Eva Victor (“Sorry, Baby”).
Nominees: Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”; Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”; Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme”; Joachim Trier, “Sentimental Value”; and Chloé Zhao, “Hamnet.”
Best original song
It’s been common practice that when Hollywood adapts a Broadway musical, a new song is created in the hopes that it will earn a best original song nomination. Often that is the case, and in rare instances (“Evita”) they’ve won. But Stephen Schwartz, despite having two new “Wicked” songs on the Oscar shortlist, was left out. Also missing out: Miley Cyrus (“Avatar: Fire and Ash”), Ed Sheeran (“F1”), Billy Idol (“Billy Idol Should Be Dead”), and Nine Inch Nails (“Tron: Ares”).
Not left out was songwriter Diane Warren, who earned her 17th Oscar nomination, though she has never won. Always a bridesmaid…
Nominees: “Dear Me” from “Diane Warren: Relentless”; “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters”; “I Lied to You” from “Sinners”; “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from “Viva Verdi!” and “Train Dreams” from “Train Dreams.”
The 98th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien (who sadly did not get a best supporting actor nomination for playing a therapist in “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”), will be presented March 15 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
Jennifer Lawrence revealed this week that she’s gotten stuck with at least four nicknames over the years.
“Floffin, Nitro,” the “No Hard Feelings” actress told Amy Poehler on her “Good Hang” podcast Tuesday before sharing a slightly racier one she’s been saddled with in womanhood.
“Boobs,” she laughed. “Boobs Lawrence. The full government name.”
She added that her friends also call her “Ken from the ‘Barbie’ movie, ’cause I’m ‘just Ken.’ I think it’s their way of calling me stupid. And whenever I ask something stupid, they’re like, ‘She’s just Ken.’”
Jennifer Lawrence revealed that one of her nicknames is “Boobs.” (Neil Mockford/Getty Images for BFI)
Earlier in the interview, Lawrence talked about how “embarrassing” she finds photo shoots.
“They’re just like, ‘We were thinking you wouldn’t wear a bra for this,’ and I’m like, ‘I’ve had two children,’” the 35-year-old said of photo shoot awkwardness.
“‘You want me to show you something? Come here, let me show you something,’” she joked.
She also talked about her body changes after the birth of her second son early last year.
“With my second, I had like bad postpartum, so, like, I wasn’t eating. So, I felt really skinny, but I wasn’t,” she explained. “I was like, ‘Strapless? Let’s do this.’ My baby was like 3 weeks old,” she laughed.
She added that she’s surprised people haven’t mentioned how “skinny” she looks in her new movie “Die My Love” because she was pregnant while shooting it.
The 35-year-old revealed that her friends also call her “Just Ken” when she says something “stupid.” (Juan Naharro Gimenez/WireImage)
“And I’ve been waiting, and nobody said it. Nobody was like, ‘Wow, you were pregnant? You looked so skinny.’ Like, I’ve never had an Ozempic rumor,” she joked.
And while she didn’t elaborate on where her Floffin nickname came from, the “Hunger Games” star explained that “nitro” was given to her by her older brothers in childhood.
Jennifer Lawrence says she has four nicknames: Floffin, Nitro, Boobs and Just Ken.(Arnaitz Rubio/Europa Press via Getty Images)
“I was really hyper, and they called me nitro,” she revealed.
After Poehler asked about the best part of growing up with two older brothers, she said, “I mean, they were great. They were really protective. … I think it made me tough.”
If you ever need proof that the universe has a sense of humor, look no further than the lawsuit over the movie It Ends With Us and the legal drama between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively that simply refuses to end. The movie, an adaptation of the massively successful Colleen Hoover romance novel of the same name, was released on August 9, 2024, but the legal hullabaloo between Lively and Baldoni, who co-starred in the movie and served as producer and director, respectively, continues to drag on.
Taylor Swift, a noted pal of Lively’s (never forget that big-hair tracksuit moment at the 2024 Super Bowl), is not party to the current chapter of the lawsuit, Lively v. Wayfarer Studios LLC, a workplace harassment suit brought by Lively against Baldoni’s production arm, but where Swift is involved, even tangentially, lo, attention follows.
In June, judge Lewis J. Lymandismissed Baldoni’s $400 million defamation claim against Lively and others including Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, and the New York Times. Less than two weeks later, however, Lyman ruled that texts and emails between Lively and Swift must be shared with Baldoni’s legal team for discussion of the alleged on-set sexual harassment. Swift’s rep had previously blasted a subpoena of the singer’s comms with her friend as “designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case.”
On Tuesday, January 20, 2026, redacted copies of many of those communications were made public on the case docket, and selections from emails and texts between the two provide several (presumably therapy-informed) ready-made responses for those grasping for words when praising a pal or dissing an opponent. It’s also a reminder that you should be nice to those you love—at least in writing—because your words just may become part of a public court record someday.
Below, a helpful guide to some of the most memorable insults and words of praise contained in the Swift-Lively texts.
It’s a bold filmmaking choice to have a countdown clock on the screen for most of your movie.
In the best-case scenario for a movie like “Mercy,” in which a Los Angeles detective has prove his innocence to an artificial intelligence judge within said time limit, it heightens the tension. Who hasn’t gotten sweaty palms in, say, a “Mission: Impossible” movie when the bomb is ticking down and Tom Cruise still hasn’t cleared the building? Why not just extend it for the duration?
Perhaps in a better movie it might have worked. Sadly in “Mercy,” in theaters Thursday, it’s an ever-present reminder of just how much longer you must endure until you too are free of Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson and that chair.
In “Mercy’s” near-future Los Angeles, AI has been adopted by law enforcement and the judicial system to more efficiently clean up the city’s crime and blight problem. It’s a potent and not too far-flung idea that might have been a fascinating and provocative premise for a movie attempting to grapple with the implications of so-called progress that had the potential to be a worthy companion to another Cruise movie, “Minority Report.” But that would have required a more serious script than screenwriter Marco van Belle’s and more vision than filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov managed to muster.
When Pratt’s character, Chris Raven, wakes up, barefoot and strapped into an electric chair sitting in the middle of an oddly large room that looks a bit like the holodeck, he’s informed by an IMAX-sized AI judge (Ferguson) that he has 90 minutes to prove he didn’t kill his wife (Annabelle Wallis). In this world, the incarcerated are guilty until proved innocent. They’ve cut lawyers and juries out of the equation as well. Instead, the accused have everyone’s digital footprint at their disposal to help build their own case. For Raven, that means everything from ring cam footage to his teenage daughter’s secret Instagram account.
Unfortunately for Raven, he woke up with some gaps in his memory between angrily busting into his home to confront his wife about something and being arrested and bludgeoned at a bar later that day. Raven was also one of the original champions of the AI judge system, which in a more curious script might have resulted in some real stakes. This story is more hung up on increasingly tortured plot contrivances, however, including Raven’s drinking problem following the death of a partner killed on the job. To its credit, the story does really keep it ambiguous as to whether Raven did it or not, but to say that it earns any sort of investment in the outcome is a stretch.
One of the most confounding choices is to have a real actor playing the AI judge. Wouldn’t it have been more interesting and provocative to use an AI creation as the impartial Judge Maddox instead of stripping Ferguson of all emotion and charisma in the role? At times, it feels as tedious as watching a stranger’s increasingly frustrating call with a robotic customer service representative play out in real time.
For how reliant this movie is on screens and keeping Pratt alone, one might assume that “Mercy” was a socially distanced, COVID-era leftover instead of something made in 2024. Kali Reis, playing another LAPD agent named Jaq who decides to help Raven investigate on the ground is the one that gets to be out in the real-world chasing leads and hunches. But for the most part, she’s seen only through FaceTime and bodycam footage. Like Raven, we’re largely stuck in the chair watching things play out on multiple screens, acutely aware of just how much time is left.
“Mercy,” an Amazon MGM release in theaters Thursday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “drug content, bloody images, some strong language, teen smoking and violence.” Running time: 101 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
New court documents are shining a light on what some Sony executives allegedly think of the ongoing It Ends With Us legal drama.
According to unsealed court documents obtained by Us Weekly on Wednesday, January 21, multiple Sony executives privately observed that the negative publicity around Blake Lively may have been the result of her own conduct.
Court documents allege that Sony President Sanford Panitch wrote in August 2024 that “the hair sell at the same time was epic level stupid,” referring to Lively’s Blake Brown line.
“She wouldn’t listen. She knows better,” Panitch allegedly continued. “She did it to herself. If she just let [Justin Baldoni] come to the premiere or didn’t make all the cast unfollow him or kick him off the movie and did what everyone ever has done in show business for time and memorial, which is protect ‘the show,’ then none of the sleuthing would have happened.”
The legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni continues with 181 pages of documents unsealed on Tuesday, January 20. In the docs, obtained by Us Weekly, several members from the It Ends With Us cast — including Jenny Slate and Isabela Ferrer — were deposed and slammed Baldoni during their testimonies. Communications between Lively […]
In a separate note, Sony CEO Tom Rothman allegedly observed that although Lively, 38, didn’t “deserve” the backlash she was receiving on social media, “she did bring it all on herself by refusing to listen to advice … and by selling her products.”
Lively launched Blake Brown on Instagram while on the It Ends With Us presstour. Entertainment Weekly previously reported that the launch was never meant to coincide with the It Ends With Us premiere. The film, however, was delayed several months, just a few days shy of Lively’s planned hair-care debut.
In another note, Tahra Grant — the Executive VP and Chief Communications Officer at Sony — allegedly wrote in August 2024 that Lively “orchestrated all this drama in a totally unsavvy and amateur way (and basically threatened…Sony) and now is mad it backfired on her.”
Others at Sony, however, appeared to be impressed with Lively and the success of It Ends With Us.
In a deposition unsealed on Tuesday, January 20, Sony Motion Picture Group President Josh Greenstein said he believed the It Ends With Us edit Lively worked on was “a stronger cut.”
“All she cared about was greatness,” Greenstein allegedly said. “I was incredibly impressed that — especially seeing everything she was doing in terms of the cut of the film and the marketing of the film, that she — her creativity, she took a — like an OK campaign and elevated it.”
Court documents also revealed alleged text messages between Lively and Sony executive Ange Giannetti on August 11, 2024, days after the film was released.
“Blake 50m dollars!! Your blood sweat tears brilliant smarts heart and soul in every single frame,” Giannetti wrote when celebrating the box office numbers. “My God. It’s incredible. Thank you 50m times and it’s only Sat night.”
Lively starred alongside Baldoni, 41, in the 2024 movie It Ends With Us, based on author Colleen Hoover’s book of the same name.
Months after the film’s release, Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni — who also served as the director on the film — with the California Civil Rights Department. The Gossip Girl alum subsequently sued Baldoni over sexual harassment claims, which he has continued to deny.
Baldoni countersued Lively in late 2024, but his lawsuit was dismissed in June 2025. A civil trial is slated to start in May of this year.
Before a trial gets underway, unsealed evidence continues to surface, providing a glimpse into what allegedly went down behind the scenes of It Ends With Us.
Blake Lively’s legal team is expanding as her lawsuit against Justin Baldoni moves closer to trial. Us Weekly can confirm Lively, 38, has hired attorney Sigrid McCawley, who is a longtime advocate for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, including Virginia Giuffre. “It is a privilege to get to work with Blake Lively’s world-class legal team on a […]
According to separate court documents obtained by Us on Tuesday, Hoover, 46, sent an email to Sony on July 14, 2024, expressing hesitation in attending the It Ends With Us premiere.
Hoover allegedly said she was “used to being neutral” and doesn’t like “upsetting people or choosing sides.”
In her email to Sony, however, Hoover couldn’t promise to attend the premiere if Baldoni’s team was going to be present.
“I go back and forth every day between continuing to show up for this movie or going into hiding because it’s all causing me anxiety and bringing attention that I’m not prepared for/used to,” she allegedly wrote. “Of course in a perfect world we’d set it all aside and everyone could smile for the cameras, but feelings have been hurt and boundaries have been crossed. I can see where Blake is coming from if she chooses not to attend, because if I were in her shoes, I’m not so sure I would be able to stomach seeing someone else accept credit and accolades for what was also a huge massive effort on her part, and having to share what should be a celebratory moment with people you absolutely can’t celebrate with.”
Blake Lively’s alleged feud with director and costar Justin Baldoni on the set of It Ends With Us exploded into multiple lawsuits in 2025. The former Gossip Girl star kicked off the legal battle by filing a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department and subsequently sued Baldoni over sexual harassment allegations. Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan […]
On August 6, 2024, Lively, Hoover and Baldoni all attended the New York City premiere of It Ends With Us.
In response to the unsealed court documents, Sigrid McCawley — a member of Lively’s legal team — told Us in a statement that the evidence shows “the Sony/Lively cut was the one chosen for release and was an unprecedented success, earning over $80 million dollars in its opening weekend and over $351 million dollars in box office worldwide.”
“The evidence shows Ms. Lively worked closely with author Colleen Hoover on the cut. Sony supported this cut, Ms. Hoover expressed her preference for this cut, Wayfarer approved it and the book’s most devoted fans reacted to the Sony/Lively cut with enormous enthusiasm at Ms. Hoover’s charity event, Book Bonanza,” the statement continued. “The Sony/Lively cut went on to make Sony and Wayfarer hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Valerie Bertinelli opened up about being fired as the spokesperson for a diet company because she regained weight after initially losing 50 pounds.
On Jan. 14, the 65-year-old actress made an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show” and took part in the show’s “Memory Bank” segment in which Barrymore and her guests are presented with photos from pivotal moments in their lives, leading them to recount the stories and emotions behind the images.
During the segment, Barrymore, her co-anchor Ross Matthews and Bertinelli reacted to a photo of the “Hot in Cleveland” star, who was seen smiling while wearing a white floral sheath dress at her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2012.
“Look at you, Val! God, you’re so beautiful, Barrymore said. “You look stunning.”
“And I felt so horrified,” Bertinelli said.
Valerie Bertinelli recalled being fired as a spokesperson for a diet company after she regained weight. (Michael Tran/FilmMagic)
Bertinelli explained that in the years leading up her Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony, she had publicly chronicled her weight loss efforts while representing an unnamed diet company.
“I had started a diet program and then became their spokesperson in 2007 and I had lost 50 pounds,” she recalled. “And then life started to get the better of me, and I wasn’t taking care of my mental and emotional health, so the weight started to come back on.”
“And this was the last year, I believe, that I was with this diet company,” Bertinelli continued. “And they fired me, eventually said, ‘We can’t keep going with you because you’re gaining weight again.’”
The actress is pictured at her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2012. (Michael Tran/FilmMagic)
The “One Day at a Time” noted that the dress she was pictured in was a size 12.
“I remember thinking, ‘But size 12’s not that big!’” Bertinelli recalled. “But I had gotten down to a size 4 — which was way too small for me and impossible for me to maintain.”
“And I’ve been up and down, but pretty much, basically, this weight my whole life that I am right now, and I’m a size 10 now,” she continued. “And I would’ve been horrified then being on the diet program being a size 10.”
Bertinelli became emotional as she described how her priorities and view of her self-worth had changed since that time.
“Right now, it’s about my mental and emotional health,” she said. “My mental and emotional health — even though I’m getting teary-eyed — is so strong right now.”
“I’m so strong and firm in who I am and, no matter what people throw at me, I know who I am and I know what kind of person I am and it doesn’t matter how much I weigh,” Bertinelli continued.
“What matters is who I am, how I treat people. Period!” she emphasized as the audience clapped and cheered.
Bertinelli appeared on “The Drew Barrymore Show” on Jan. 14. (The Drew Barrymore Show)
Bertinelli went on to say that she still owns the dress from the photo.
“And it fits me just fine,” the former Food Network star said. “It’s a little less snug than it is there, but I just — if anything, it doesn’t matter what size we are. What is our heart? How do we treat people? Period!”
“Preach, Val,” Matthews said.
“I hope that we’ve also come some distance between just saying skinny and fat as opposed to like, what is healthy for you,” Barrymore said.
Bertinelli previously shared that she no longer weighs herself. (Unique Nicole)
Bertinelli has previously expressed that she does not “like diet culture“ and is more focused on making sure she eats enough protein, carbs, fat and fiber.
In a February 2024 Instagram post, Bertinelli revealed that she no longer weighs herself.
The actress shared two throwback photos of herself in a bikini, writing, “This is a 150lb body on a 5’4 frame. I don’t weigh myself anymore because this is considered overweight by whose standards I don’t know.”
She added that the standards are “stupid and I believed them for far too long. I now, finally, know that I am a kind, considerate, funny, thoughtful woman. So please remember, who you are and what your character is, should never be overshadowed by what size you are or how much you weigh. You are enough. Just the way you are. F— ‘em.”
Ashley Hume is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to ashley.hume@fox.com and on Twitter: @ashleyhume
Alexander Skarsgård is addressing comments he made about his sexuality while promoting his new BDSM film, Pillion.
Skarsgård, 49, was asked at the 2025 Zurich Film Festival what he brought from his own life to the upcoming film, which follows timid Colin (Henry Melling) as he meets confident biker Ray (Skarsgård), who initiates him into a submissive relationship.
“I mean, I do have a kid, but what I’ve done in the past, who I’ve been with, men, women…,” Skarsgård explained at the time. “To me, what was important was that this felt like an opportunity to tell a story about a subculture I hadn’t seen portrayed this way — with so much authenticity.”
Some fans took the actor’s explanation as a confirmation of his assumed bisexuality. However, when asked in an interview with Variety published on Tuesday, January 20, Skarsgård clarified that he was merely trying to de-center his own personal experience when explaining the premise of the film.
Alexander Skarsgård brought an added edge to his latest red carpet outing. Skarsgård, 49, stepped out at the BFI London Film Festival premiere of his movie Pillion on Saturday, October 18, showing off his rather impressive physique. Skarsgård donned a sleeveless, halter-style button-down that flaunted his toned biceps, which he wore with a pair of […]
“Oh. That it resonated with my past? It was definitely not an intended statement,” the Big Little Lies star told the outlet when asked about his previous comments. “I don’t know what I was talking about. Maybe it has to do with — there’s a lot of focus sometimes on me as an actor. Maybe it was trying to shift the focus more to the story and these characters. And the importance of telling the story like this.”
This isn’t the first time Skarsgård has made headlines for his remarks about the film. The True Blood alum previously opened up about why he was “excited” to shoot Pillion’s graphic sex scenes with his costar Melling, noting that the movie strays from the typical construct of what intimate on screen moments often look like.
“I was excited because [the sex scenes] are interesting [in Pillion],” he told The Hollywood Reporter in September 2025. “And that’s quite rare. Most sex scenes on screen are quite boring and sanitized.”
Skarsgård added that the sex scenes don’t shy away from the “awkwardness” of many intimate situations, which he appreciated.
“We really leaned into the authenticity, the awkwardness of sex, which I thought was really funny and sweet,” he explained. “It’s quite rare to have a sex scene that actually has an emotional journey. There’s stuff happening, and it’s like erotic and sexy, but then it’s awkward, and then it’s funny. I think [director Harry Lighton] instilled a lot of trust in us. We just felt very comfortable. There was no trepidation going in. Quite the opposite. We were excited to jump in.”
When asked whether any sex scenes were deemed too explicit for Pillion’s final cut, Skarsgård said with a laugh, “Oh yeah, we’ve got some extra scenes we’ve saved for the Christmas Special edition, a triple X version for the kids.”
Pillion is based on author Adam Mars-Jones’ 2020 Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize-winning novel Box Hill. The book was also shortlisted by the Royal Society of Literature as one of the best British novels of 2021.
Alexander Skarsgård revealed that he gets “quite excited” to shoot “graphic” sex scenes. The Big Little Lies alum, 49, and costar Harry Melling have multiple intimate scenes in their critically-acclaimed romantic drama Pillion, which chronicles a BDSM relationship between a biker gang leader (Skarsgård) and a shy young man (Melling) who lives with his terminally […]
In his months promoting the film, Skarsgård has been praised for his method-like fashion choices, often showing up on red carpets wearing bondage-themed attire. While speaking to Variety on Monday, he admitted clothes are not his usual forte, but something he’s been playing with more recently.
“I never buy clothes. If you saw my closet, my wardrobe is very limited,” he confessed. “I’m not a big consumer of fashion. I don’t spend money on expensive brands. I really enjoy the creativity of it, but it’s not like I’m out shopping for these outfits. I guess it’s something I’ve leaned into a bit more of late.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Channing Tatum is bringing the stage spin-off of his wildly successful “Magic Mike” film franchise to New York City, promising to “turn up the gas” on a show that already generates plenty of heat.
“Magic Mike Live” — which offers plenty of chiseled abs and sex-positivity — will open its specially designed 425-seat immersive experience Oct. 8 at the onetime Copacabana nightclub on the corner of 47th Street and 8th Avenue.
“We’re going to turn the gas up a little bit and make it a little hotter, just pour some gasoline on it. It’s New York. So you’ve got to throw everything at it,” Tatum tells The Associated Press.
“Magic Like Live” flips the traditional, cheesy male review on its head, putting the women in the audience first at a time when toxic masculinity is under fire.
The show features 13 ripped male dancers and a female MC, combining songs, aerial acrobatics, comedy, plenty of drink service and audience participation, only if wanted.
“It’s kind of like a dance spectacular that has a sexy twist, and sexy for us is a lot of things. Sexy is funny. Sexy is athletic. Sexy is smart. So we try to approach the dance with all of those things in mind,” says Alison Faulk, co-director and choreographer.
“There’s very few spaces that are made with women in mind,” she adds. “This is made with the woman in mind and making her whole night happy and easier and fun, just to like to take a load off. There’s few places like that.”
Some of the songs will include Ginuwine’s “Pony,” which is featured in the films, 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop,” Gallant’s “Open Up,” James Brown’s “Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine” and Ro James’ “Permission,” as well as original music.
The creators say the new venue is a hybrid between a really beautiful nightclub and a theatrical space, with multiple bars and lounges and seating that ranges from couches to traditional theatrical seats, to bar stools, cabaret tables and banquets.
“What we really try to do is to create an evening of surprise and delight that gives you a bit of what you expect and then a whole bunch of things you never thought you’d ever get,” says Vincent Marini, creative director and executive producer. “What we did for the male revue is very similar to what Cirque du Soleil did to circus.”
Tatum, who spent time in a Chippendales-like revue as a young dancer before becoming a movie star, conceived of the nightclub-style shows but warns visitors not to expect a live version of the “Magic Mike” movies.
“One of the biggest reasons why I wanted to make this show was to kill that old version of male entertaining, because I’ve worked in that version and it’s misogynistic and degrading to women,” he says.
“It’s just gross a little bit. I ain’t gonna lie. Like, I did it for like about 10 months and I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy. This is nuts,’” he adds. “Most of the people that end up loving our show, I think, the most are the people that kind of hate that type of thing the most.”
The success of the films first spawned a Las Vegas stage show in 2017 that now has outposts in London and Berlin and is touring Australia. The version that lands in New York will be tweaked to reflect the city and creators say they’ve fine-tuned the story.
Tatum says the creators have learned that audiences in different cities act differently — London’s were more staid than Vegas, for instance — and that whoever is the MC can really change the experience by setting the tone.
“This New York production is the culmination of 10 years of work and thought and watching millions of people, men and women go to this show,” says Marini. “We want to come to New York with the very best version of this that we’ve ever done.”
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Amanda Knox revived her feud with Matt Damon after the actor and his “The Rip” co-star Ben Affleck weighed in on cancel culture.
During a recent interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Damon, 55, and Affleck, 53, shared their thoughts on how cancel culture can be taken to extremes. At one point in their discussion, Damon suggested that for some public figures, the perpetual ostracization and scrutiny of being canceled is worse than a jail sentence.
“I bet some of those people would have preferred to go to jail for 18 months or whatever and then come out and say, ‘No, but I paid my debt. Like, we’re done. Like, can we be done?’” Damon said. “Like, the thing about getting kind of excoriated publicly like that, it just never ends. And it’s the first thing that… you know, it just will follow you to the grave.”
After the podcast episode was released Jan. 16, Knox, 38, who previously slammed Damon for starring in a 2021 movie inspired by her real-life wrongful conviction and imprisonment, called the Oscar winner out again on social media.
“Another thing Matt Damon could have run by me before putting out into the world,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter, alongside a Variety article about Damon’s cancel culture comments.
Amanda Knox called out Matt Damon for comments he recently made comparing enduring cancel culture to serving jail time. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images; Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
Knox spent four years in prison after she and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were twice convicted and later acquitted in the 2007 murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Perugia, Italy. The two were released from prison in October 2011.
After Knox shared her post, she replied to several X users who commented in the thread.
“Yeah, well, literally going to jail…not so good,” wrote journalist Katherine Brodsky. “But frankly, given that some of these ‘cancelled’ people have taken their own lives, yeah, maybe they would have preferred to go to jail for 18 months and be done with it — instead, there’s no end to it. No coming back. No being ‘square.’”
“People commit suicide in prison, too,” Knox responded.
“Amanda is unfamiliar with the word some!” another social media user commented.
Damon and Ben Affleck spoke out about cancel culture during a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.”(Getty Images)
“You’re missing the point,” Knox replied. “You don’t get to go to prison in secret. It comes with its own stigma and lasting trauma. You don’t just get to ‘be done with it,’ personally or socially.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Damon’s representative for comment.
After being released from prison, Knox returned to the United States and became an outspoken advocate for criminal justice reform with a focus on the wrongfully convicted and media ethics.
She has penned two memoirs about her experiences, including 2013’s “Waiting to Be Heard” and 2025’s “Free: My Search for Meaning” and also hosts the “Hard Knox” podcast.
Knox spent four years in prison after being wrongfully convicted in the murder of her roommate in Italy. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
After Damon’s movie “Stillwater” was released in July 2021, Knox denounced the film in a viral thread on X. “Stillwater,” which was directed by Tom McCarthy, stars Damon as a father whose daughter was convicted of killing her roommate and imprisoned in France. The movie follows Damon’s character as he travels from Oklahoma to France where he sets out on a quest to prove his daughter’s innocence.
McCarthy previously confirmed that the movie was inspired by Knox’s real-life case. Knox slammed the filmmakers for further linking her name to Kercher’s murder after she was exonerated and also took issue with the twist in the movie’s storyline, which deviated from actual events and cast doubt on the innocence of the character based on her.
During an August 2021 interview with Variety, Knox explained why she felt it was necessary to go after Damon and McCarthy over their handling of her story in “Stillwater.”
Knox previously slammed Damon for starring in 2021’s “Stillwater.”(Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images)
“Wrongful convictions don’t just happen to the individual. They happen to a whole network of human beings who love this person and know that they’re innocent and fight for their innocence,” she explained.
Knox went on to note that the movie’s decision to make the character she inspired somewhat culpable in the murder meant that the lines between reality and fiction weren’t blurred in a responsible way, making it hard for her not to feel like Damon and McCarthy were opening wounds she’s worked hard to put behind her.
“I don’t think that the filmmakers can honestly say that they went far enough away from my case so that it wouldn’t be recognizably my case,” she told the outlet. “And I think that that’s clear in all of the coverage where everyone’s like, ‘Oh, this is recognizably the Amanda Knox case.’ And from that audiences can then draw conclusions about me, whether or not those conclusions are accurate or not.”
She added: “The question that Tom McCarthy really has to ask himself is, is it responsible to keep recycling that same story when we know what the consequences of that can be?”
Knox was freed from prison in October 2011. (VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images)
She shared her view that the movie renewed the public perception that she had something to do with the crime. In her viral Twitter thread, Knox noted that the case is still referred to as the “Amanda Knox case” rather than the “murder of Meredith Kercher by Rudy Guede.”
“There’s been this ongoing idea that, ‘Well, as long as we call it fiction, then no one would honestly apply the ideas or feelings or conclusions that I bring with my imagination to the story to the real person,’” she explained. “And that’s simply not true.”
She has become an outspoken advocate for criminal justice reform. (Lucien Knuteson)
“Especially when you’re looking at people like myself who continue to be brought up with a question mark, you deciding to tell that story in your own way is going to be adding to the ledger of how people understand and define me as a human being,” she continued.
“And then Matt Damon and the director can walk away with a great story in their pocket, but meanwhile, I’m still living with the consequences of people thinking that I am somehow involved in this crime that I am not involved in.”
Last year, Knox was involved in a retelling of her story when she served as an executive producer on the Hulu limited series “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox,” an eight-episode true-crime biographical drama that premiered on Hulu in August 2025.
Fox News Digital’s Tyler McCarthy contributed to this report.
Ashley Hume is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to ashley.hume@fox.com and on Twitter: @ashleyhume
The Sundance Film Festival may be a little bittersweet this year. It will be familiar in some ways as it kicks off on Thursday in Park City, Utah. There will be stars, from Natalie Portman to Charli XCX, and breakout discoveries, tearjerkers, comedies, thrillers, oddities that defy categorization and maybe even a few future Oscar nominees. The pop ups and sponsors will be out in full force on Main Street. The lines to get into the 90 movies premiering across 10 days will be long and the volunteers will be endlessly helpful and cheery in subfreezing temperatures.
But the country’s premier showcase for independent film is also in a time of profound transition after decades of relative stability. The festival is bidding farewell to its longtime home and forging forward without its founder, Robert Redford, who died in September. Next year, it must find its footing in another mountain town, Boulder, Colorado.
It’s no surprise that legacy will be a through-line at this year’s final edition in Park City. There will be screenings of restored Sundance gems like “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Mysterious Skin,” “House Party” and “Humpday” as well as Redford’s first truly independent film, the 1969 sports drama “Downhill Racer.” Many will also pay tribute to Redford at the institute’s fundraising event, where honorees include Chloé Zhao, Ed Harris and Nia DaCosta.
“Sundance has always been about showcasing and fostering independent movies in America. Without that, so many filmmakers wouldn’t have had the careers they have,” said “Mysterious Skin” filmmaker Gregg Araki. He first attended the festival in 1992 and has been back many times, including at the labs where Zhao was one of his students.
Quite a few festival veterans are planning to make the trip, including “Navalny” filmmaker Daniel Roher. His first Sundance in 2022 might have been a bit unconventional (made fully remote at the last minute due to the pandemic) but ended on a high note with an Oscar. This year he’s back with two films, his narrative debut “Tuner,” and the world premiere of “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist,” which he co-directed with Charlie Tyrell.
“We’re going through a weird moment in the world … There’s something that strikes me about an institution that has been evergreen, that seems so entrenched going through its own transition and rebirth,” Roher told The Associated Press. “I’m choosing to frame this year as a celebration of Sundance and the institute and a future that will ensure the festival goes on forever and ever and ever and stays the vital conduit for so many filmmakers that it has been.”
Over the past four decades, countless careers have been shaped and boosted by the festival and the Institute. Three of this year’s presumed Oscar nominees — Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryan Coogler and Zhao — are among those the Institute supported early in their careers.
Jay Duplass, who first came to Sundance in 2003 with his brother, Mark, with what he calls a “$3 film” said it was the place where his career was made.
“I’d probably be a psychologist right now if it wasn’t for Sundance,” Duplass said.
While he’s been to “probably 15 Sundances” since, it hasn’t lost its luster. In fact, when a programmer called him to tell him that his new film “See You When I See You” was selected, he cried. The film is based on a memoir in which a young comedy writer (Cooper Raiff) attempts to process the death of his sister (Kaitlyn Dever). It’s one of many films that finds humor amid grim subjects.
As always, the lineup is full of starry films as well, including Cathy Yan’s art world satire, “The Gallerist,” starring Portman, Jenna Ortega, Sterling K. Brown, Zach Galifianakis and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. The romantic drama “Carousel,” from Rachel Lambert, features Chris Pine and Jenny Slate as high school exes who rekindle their romance later in life. Araki is also bringing a new film, “I Want Your Sex,” in which Olivia Wilde plays a provocative artist (Araki described as a cross between Madonna and Robert Mapplethorpe) who takes on Cooper Hoffman as her younger muse.
“It’s kind of a sex-positive love letter to Gen Z,” Araki said. “It’s a comedy. It has elements of mystery, thriller, murder — a little bit of ‘Sunset Boulevard’ … it’s fun, it’s colorful, it’s sexy. It’s a ride.”
Wilde also steps behind the camera for “The Invite,” in which she stars alongside Seth Rogen as a couple whose marriage disintegrates over the course of an evening. Olivia Colman is a fisherwoman looking to make the perfect husband in “Wicker,” co-starring Alexander Skarsgård. Zoey Deutch plays a Midwestern bride-to-be seeking out her celebrity “free pass” (Jon Hamm) in the screwball comedy “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass.” And Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe lead the Depression-era crime drama “The Weight.”
Pop star and noted cinephile Charli XCX will also be out and about, starring in the self-referential mockumentary “The Moment,” and appearing in “The Gallerist” and “I Want Your Sex” as well.
The 2026 festival features a robust lineup of documentaries too, which have a good track record of snagging eventual Oscar nominations and wins. There are a handful of films about famous faces, including basketball star Brittney Griner, Courtney Love, Salman Rushdie, Billie Jean King, Nelson Mandela and comedian Maria Bamford.
Others delve into newsy subjects past and present, like “When A Witness Recants,” in which author Ta-Nehisi Coates revisits the case of the 1983 murder of a boy in his Baltimore middle school and learns the truth. “American Doctor” follows three professionals trying to help in Gaza. “Who Killed Alex Odeh” examines the 1985 assassination of a Palestinian American activist in Southern California. “Everybody To Kenmure Street” is about civil resistance to deportations in Glasgow in 2021. And “Silenced” tracks international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson in her fight against the weaponization of defamation laws against victims of gender violence.
And some don’t fit into any easy category, like “The History of Concrete” in which filmmaker John Wilson takes what he learned at a “how to sell a Hallmark movie” seminar and tries to apply it to a documentary on concrete.
There might be a bit of wistfulness in the air too, as everyone takes stock of the last Sundance in Park City and tries to imagine what Boulder might hold.
“It feels very special to be part of the last one in Park City,” Duplass said. “It’s just a super special place where, you know there are going to be movies there with giant stars and there’s also going to be some kids there who made movies for a few thousand dollars. And they’re all going to mix.”
Araki, like Redford, knew long ago that the festival had outgrown Park City. It will be strange to no longer have its iconic locations like Egyptian Theatre and Eccles and The Ray anymore, but it’s also just a place.
“The legacy and the tradition of Sundance will continue no matter where it is,” Araki said.
